Have not agreed much with Dear Eric lately, but am resurrecting this weeks-old post because the quote from Plutarch Heavensbee (scroll all the way down) is so heavenly, and I’ve been mentioning it like mad, esp on Facebook!

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Eric D. Snider can be so much fun to quote. She hasn’t quoted him in a while, though. Self owes him her deepest deepest gratitude for apprising her of the excellence of the following films:

From Paris With Love (which is still self’s FAVORITE Jonathan Rhys Meyers movie, she kids you not! She says this totally without irony)

The Raid: Redemption (Self’s first Indonesian movie. She gives it five stars! She adores over-the-top, cheeky violence!)

If not for Eric D. Snider, self might have been suckered into seeing such high-quality cinematic products as:

The Counselor

Ender’s Game (At one point, Sole Fruit of Her Loins was very into this series by Orson Scott Card)

Last Vegas

But no! Because of Eric D. Snider, self has now and then managed to hang on to ten bucks and two hours! And, since life is short, she would never be able to get those back. NEVER!

Today, self has endless free time. Christmas is not yet here, and no one is coming to visit. The day is yet young: self has (so far) filled up her time with hanging Christmas decorations and writing Christmas cards. If one were to ask self what the best use of her time would be at this moment, she might respond that if she were not able to write, or were not in the mood to write, she would be in the downtown Century 20, watching Hunger Games: Catching Fire for the fourth time.

But since self believes in “moderation in all things,” she has decided to go scarf up her copies of The Hunger Games books, which she hasn’t actually laid eyes on in at least two years. She goes hunting all over son’s room, and cannot for the life of her remember where to look. She hopes she didn’t leave them in Bacolod.

Anyhoo, Eric D. Snider has reviewed Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and instead of sharing his entire review, self will zoom in on a quote from Plutarch Heavensbee that he includes in his review (You know, if self didn’t know any better, she’d almost think the entire Hunger Games trilogy was a satire, a cheeky thing to be played strictly for laughs. Especially when characters have names like “Peeta” who is a baker — tell self you didn’t immediately think of pita bread! — and Effie Trinket — Did you not think the name could be referring to something like: “This is just EFFING hilarious!”)

Our man Plutarch has decided to ask Katniss for a dance. They’re twirling around a ballroom, making small talk. It’s the kind of thing Natalie Dormer’s character in the TV series Game of Thrones (Margaery Tyrell) does so well. While looking very poised and serene, she manages to produce words that function something like razor points. So Plutarch is saying to Katniss: “It’s appalling. Still, if you abandon your moral judgement, it can be fun.”

Is that a direct quote from the book? If it is, Suzanne Collins needs to be congratulated. Because, as Eric D. Snider says, it “is true of so many things.” (BTW, only an actor as skilled as Philip Seymour Hoffman could inject that line with the right amount of sarcasm. Oh, the delivery, the delivery!)